28 July, 2008

Announcing JFI-Aug '08

Jihva for Ingredients a.k.a. JFI is the brainchild of Indira of Mahanandi. Indira started this event to showcase the natural ingredients every month and undoubtedly it is one of the most popular food blogging events among the food bloggers. I am honored to host this month’s JFI edition on Monsoon Spice and I sincerely thank Indira for this wonderful opportunity. I invite you all to celebrate Jihva for Ingredients with this month’s theme JFI-Soya.

The soy bean (Glycine max) is a species of legume native to East Asia. The majority of Soya protein is a relatively heat-stable storage protein. This heat stability enables Soya food products requiring high temperature cooking, such as tofu, soymilk and textured vegetable protein (Soya flour) to be made.Soya is an excellent source of high quality protein, is low in saturated fats and is cholesterol free. Recent research has indicated soya has several beneficial effects on health in addition to its nutritional benefits. Soya beans contain high concentrations of several compounds which have demonstrated anti-carcinogenic activity. These include isoflavonoids, protease inhibitors and phytic acid.(Source: Wiki)

Choice of Soya products, the recipe, ingredients, method etc is entirely left to you. I would greatly appreciate if you can send me any Vegan or Vegetarian recipes but I leave it to your choice. Soya foods include tofu, tempeh, textured vegetable protein (chunks, mince etc), miso, soya sauces, soya oil and margarine, and soya dairy alternatives.

Textured Vegetable Protein: Textured vegetable protein is basically defatted soya flour which has been processed and dried to give a substance with a sponge-like texture which may be flavoured to resemble meat.Tofu: Tofu is soya bean curd made from coagulated soya milk.Tempeh: Tempeh is a fermented soya bean paste made by inoculating cooked soya beans with the mould Rhizopus oligosporous.Miso: Miso is a fermented condiment made from soya beans, grain (rice or barley), salt and water.Soya Sauce: True soya sauce, called shoyu, is made by fermenting soya beans with cracked roasted wheat, salt and water.Soya Dairy Alternatives: Soya milk is an alternative to dairy milk and is widely available in supermarkets and health food stores. It is most commonly made by soaking soya beans in water which are then strained to remove the fibre.Other Soya Products: Soya oil and margarine are widely used and are high in polyunsaturated fats and low in saturated fats. Other less easily available soya foods include soya sprouts, soya nuts (roasted and seasoned soya beans), natto (fermented soya beans made with a bacteria, Bacillus subtilis), yuba (the skin formed on heated soya milk), soya flakes, soya flour, and high protein soya isolates and concentrates(Source: vegsoc.org)

So what are you waiting for? Prepare any dish using Soya Products and mail it to me. Put your imaginations to work and get creative. And most important thing to remember is have lots of fun. Cook, post and mail me your favourite Soya recipe. Don’t forget to go through the following guidelines. I will eagerly look forward to your creative contributions.

Some Guidelines to Follow:1. Prepare a dish that features Soya or Soya Products as one of the main ingredients and post it in your blog in a month of August, 2008. It would be lovely if you can send me a Vegan or Vegetarian dish with Soya or Soya product featuring a central role.2. If you already have appropriate entry archived, please make sure to repost it with a link back to this announcement page. But it will be great if you are to cook a special dish for this event.3. Provide a link back to this announcement page and feel free to use the logo.4. Email your entry to sia[at]monsoonspice[dot]com, with JFI-Soya in the subject line with following details

5. The deadline for this event is August 31st, 2008. Please remember that no late entries will be entertained.6. There is no limit to the number of entries. If you don’t have a blog but wish to participate in this event, send your entries with a picture, your name and recipe to sia[at]monsoonspice[dot]com before the deadline. I will post the recipes with your picture in my blog and include it in the round-up.

Wonderful choice Sia! Will surely send you an entry for the event. On another note, I do most of my blog hopping at the office during lunch and for some reason your blog is blocked :( I was just catching up on your previous posts and all of them are lovely. Have a few recipes bookmarked and the photos are absolutely gorgeous. Love the way you've designed the website too :)

hi sia, have been making a lot of soya this month, my blogs just so full of soya! just sent in my first entry, i'll be sending more. all the best with the event roundup looks like you have quite a task cut out for you.

Namaste! I am Sia and welcome to Monsoon Spice, my virtual home. Thank you for all your comments, inputs and feedback. I really appreciate the valuable time you spent browsing through my recipe repertoire.

I hope you have found what you are looking for today. Feel free to leave any questions or queries you have on the recipes posted here. If you have any recipe requests, please drop a line at Ask Sia page. I will try to respond to all your queries as soon as possible to best of my knowledge.

I welcome all your valuable inputs and constructive criticism as long as it is meant to help and improve the blog. I reserve the right to delete any comments that are rude, abusive, written with the intent to advertise, contain profanity or considered spam.

I hope that you will stop by again to read my rants, learn new recipes and share your ideas. Have a good look around and enjoy your time here. Thank you once again!

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About Sia

Born in India and raised in fun and food loving family, I currently reside in UK with my better half and my two babies, five years old son and nine years old food blog. My cooking style has strong root in Indian culture and at the same time embraces the world cuisine with equal passion. With never ending love for food, spice and life, I am passionate about cooking and making Indian food less intimidating, healthy and easy to cook which reflects in my blog Monsoon Spice which has been ranked one among Top Indian food blogs. Read more…

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